From the ‘Department-of-Gay-Walks’ file, Social Psychology indicates that La Cage aux Folles’ Albin—whose lover tried to teach him to walk like a real man, with the result that Albin still walked like ‘Miss John Wayne’—may have had lots of company. A study by Kerri Johnson of observers watching mixed groups of straight and gay men walking could pick out the gay men most of the time. Michael Bailey, a professor of psychology at Northwestern University says, ‘There’s reason to think that gay people can’t conceal their homosexuality.’ It is ‘either inborn, or it’s acquired very early’ (perhaps by watching the opposite sex). Johnson says the slight hip-swaying may give credence to the idea of ‘gaydar.’
From the ‘Queer-Tourist-Attraction’ file, The New York Times (Sept. 14) reports that the bathroom Sen. Larry Craig was, umm, fingered in has become a big attraction for travelers. Some comments from visitors of the lavatory (next to the Royal Zeno Shoe Shine, stall #8 of 9): ‘It’s a celebration of hypocrisy,’ ‘I have to get this picture’ (for posting on My-Space), ‘This was our first scenic shot,’ ‘We call that [stall] ‘The Minneapolis-St. Paul Recreation Center’ ‘ and—to a 15-month-old daughter who’d just been diapered in that very washroom—’Eloise, now you can say you’ve been there.’ Craig is apparently coming out with some version of ‘I wasn’t there and I didn’t do anything and it’s all that cute evil policeman’s fault.’
From the ‘Is-Colonel-McCormack-Turning-Over-in-His-Grave?’ file, the conservative founder of The Chicago Tribune may be stirring from the Perspective opinion (Sept. 16) on same-sex marriage. Geoffrey R. Stone pays tribute, movingly, by putting an historical overview of his lesbian daughter’s marriage to another woman. Stone traces the evolutionary dance of law and marriage through the years since the Civil War. ‘In the end, we must rely on our deepest moral intuitions… to draw the ‘right’ lines for our generation.’
From the ‘Chicago-G & L-Authors’ file, the Chicago Sun-Times (Sept. 9 and 16) profiles Jennifer Parello, who has revised her syndicated lesbian dating column into a novel of the same name (Dateland) that focuses on relationships between four friends. Parello herself, when previously unpartnered, spent a lot of time in Sidetrack, the famous Chicago more-or-less gay bar where she says, ‘I think I’ve kissed more girls in Sidetrack than anyone else.’ [Full disclosure: Parello writes for a supplement of this publication.] A week later the Sun-Times interviewed Robert Rodi, whose latest book is When You Were Me. The novel, set in Chicago’s Boystown, is a fantasy of a 53-year-old gay man swapping bodies with a 26-year-old. This one should find an audience among all those gents-of-a-certain age who struggle mightily at the gym to restrain and retain their abs in hope of appearing 10 years younger. (Of course, 10 years younger when you’re 57 is still 47.)